The category researching contains design tools that allow you to collect information, experiences, perspectives and other types of data on an issue.
The category of researching contains design tools that allow you to collect information, experiences, perspectives and other types of data on an issue. The tools describe ways to collect data but do not address data analysis and structuring. Analysis is the same across many of the tools: clustering, combining, coding and categorising. Next, the design tools in the category of structuring help you order in a specific way the insights you gain from analysing the data.
Some general principles apply to each tool in the category of researching:
- Select the right participants.
- Put the participants at ease.
- Make it easy for the participants.
- Prepare your research well.
- Test your research method.
- Record as much as possible during the research.
- Use various tools from the category researching to generate the richest possible data.
Design tools
What
In a photo safari, participants are sent out to take photos centred around a particular topic. You then reflect on the photos together with the participants.
Why
Photos are associative and can be interpreted in multiple ways. They say something about the photographer, but also about the person looking at them. Reflecting on this together fosters a conversation that yields rich insights into the issue.
How
- Define a number of topics for the photo safari.
- Formulate an assignment for each topic. What do you want to learn more about regarding the topic, and what kind of image are you looking for? Ensure the assignments allow the participants to exercise their own creativity and take their own approach.
- Formulate clear instructions to guide the participants on their photo safari.
- Instruct the participants and send them on their way. Give them enough time to take photos.
- Ask the participants to send their photos digitally ahead of the reflection.
- Prepare the reflection carefully: look at the photos, consider what you yourself see in them, formulate some questions to ask during the reflection and arrange for a video projector or screen or, alternatively, print the photos.
- Go through the photos with the participants and reflect on them. Discuss what the participants see in the photos and why they took these photos, but also reflect on what you see in them yourself.
What
In a journal study, participants are asked to keep a journal for a certain period, completing daily assignments, reflection questions, and fill-in-the-blank exercises on a particular topic. You then reflect on the journal together with the participants.
Why
A journal study obliges participants to reflect on a topic for a longer period. By having a discussion about it afterwards, answers will come up that are the first thing to occur to participants, leading to profound insights.
How
- Define a topic, or a few topics, for the journal study.
- Decide for how many days you want the participants to reflect. This is often a week, but it may be shorter or longer depending on the topic or issue.
- Think of one or a few assignments or questions for each day to help the participants reflect on the defined topics. Make optimum use of the medium: in a journal, one can draw, fill in a timeline, paste illustrations or photos, write a letter, draw a comic strip, and so forth.
- Give the journal shape. Make a cover and an instruction page, and decide what the pages for each day will look like. Which instructions will you give along with the assignments and questions? And what method of filling in the information works best?
- Print a journal for each participant.
- Instruct the participants and hand them the journals. Give them enough time to fill in the journal.
- Send the participants the occasional reminder to write in their journal – they often forget to do so.
- Collect the journals as soon as they have been filled in.
- Prepare the reflection carefully: go through the journals and formulate questions to ask as you reflect. What draws your attention in the journals? What would you like to have explained further?
- Reflect on the journals together with the participants. Bring the journals along for this and go over each day with them.
What
A holistic experience scan maps the emotions that participants experience during a particular situation. Afterwards, the different emotions and their origins are reflected upon.
Why
We feel emotions at the moment something affects us. Emotions therefore provide insight into a person’s needs, desires, concerns, and dreams. By mapping the emotions that a particular experience evokes, and then uncovering why this experience triggers these emotions, we gain insight into what drives someone at a deeper level.
How
- Determine for which experience you want to map the participants’ emotions.
- Create a simple timeline on which positive and negative emotions can be placed over the course of this experience. The x-axis represents time, and the y-axis represents the spectrum of emotions (positive above the x-axis, negative below the x-axis).
- Formulate instructions and questions for conducting the scan.
- Brief the participant. Ask the participant to talk out loud during the experience about the thoughts and feelings they are having.
- Let the participant go through the experience while you observe. If the participant does not talk out loud during the experience, encourage them to do so. What is going on in the participant’s mind? What are they thinking and feeling? How intense is it? Is it very positive, only slightly so, or very negative?
- Fill in the timeline during the experience. Record the high and low points and indicate which activity, action, or event triggered that feeling.
- Afterwards, find a quiet place to reflect on the experience. What were the high and low points? Which emotion did the participant feel at that moment? Where did this emotion come from, according to the participant? What does this reveal about their needs, desires, concerns, or dreams?
What
In a card sort, participants are asked to arrange cards with words or images related to a specific topic. They are then asked to explain the reasoning behind their arrangement.
Why
A card sort forces participants to impose a certain structure or order. This often happens very implicitly. By then discussing this arrangement, the underlying considerations are made explicit. This reveals how participants view the world and what they consider important within it.
How
- Determine what you want to investigate with the card sort. Do you want to develop a better understanding of the issue, think towards possible solutions, map certain needs, make contextual factors visible, or something else?
- Define as many different topics as possible that relate to what you want to investigate.
- Select 30–50 topics. Make sure they are sufficiently distinct and broad enough as a whole. Aim for a good mix of both abstract and concrete topics.
- Create a card for each topic, for example with a word or sentence, or an appropriate image.
- Print the cards.
- Formulate instructions, ways of ordering (for example, by personal preference, similarity, importance, potential, (collective or individual) value, sequence, and so on), and questions to ask during the card sort.
- Explain how the card sort will work. Ask the participant to think out loud during the card sort.
- Have the participant arrange the cards according to the ways of ordering you defined in advance.
- For each way of ordering, take the time to understand how this arrangement came about. Ask the questions you prepared beforehand and keep probing.
What
With an immersion, you step directly into the context of the issue at hand. You go to the location, talk to people, observe, and personally experience what is happening and how the issue manifests itself in the real world.
Why
By stepping into the context of the issue and spending some time there, you engage all your senses to understand it. The issue does not only become imaginable, but also tangible and emotionally relatable.
How
- Determine how you can best step into the context of the issue. Is it simply a matter of going to the location, observing, doing or experiencing something yourself, and striking up conversations? Or is it necessary to arrange a short internship, a shadowing day, or a work or home visit?
- Think about how you will enter the context, what you want to pay attention to, how you will capture your data, and what you need for this.
- Plan the immersion. Set a date, gather or develop the necessary materials, inform people, and so on.
- Go to the location and carry out the immersion. Remember to use all your senses and to seek out a variety of experiences.
- Afterwards, find a quiet place to reflect on the immersion. What stands out to you most? What did you learn? What did you experience? What did you hear? What did you see? What did you feel?
What
A conversation piece is an object that serves as a starting point for a conversation about a particular topic.
Why
Objects carry meanings and stories. By discussing a topic through an object, it becomes clear what is truly meaningful to participants.
How
- Determine the topic for the conversation with the participants.
- Ask the participants to bring an object that embodies this topic. You can choose several topics and ask participants to bring multiple objects, though it is best to keep the number limited. If you like, you can also bring an object yourself.
- Ask about the object the participants have brought. What does the object mean to them? What story lies behind it? Which characteristics of the object relate to the topic? Why?
- Describe what you yourself see in the object.
- If applicable, discuss your own object as well.
What
Appreciative inquiry is a method for identifying what is good and valuable in the current situation and finding out where ‘the energy’ is.
Why
Change often occurs as a result of inspiration, optimism and enthusiasm. The positive approach of appreciative inquiry helps identify solutions based on opportunities and positivity.
How
- Together with the participant, define the issue you are looking to solve. Formulate the issue in a positive way.
- Inventory everything that is already going well. What good examples can the participant name? What leads to enthusiasm on the part of the participant? Which initiatives and ideas are worthwhile? Which opportunities can be identified?
- Have the participant sketch out a dream image. What does the ideal future look like? What would the world look like if the issue were resolved? What should actually happen if there were no impediments at all?
- Think about how this dream can be achieved. What is needed? Who can help? Which good examples, initiatives and ideas from the previous step can play a role here? What should be discarded, but more importantly: what should be kept?
- Make a plan. Which steps and activities should be undertaken to realise this dream? What can be started tomorrow?
- Reflect on the outcomes. Has the potential regarding this issue been made sufficiently clear? Are there any other possibilities, opportunities or ideas worth mentioning?
What
A collage conversation is a ‘generative’ interview technique that involves making a collage about a theme or issue, which can then serve as the basis for a conversation on this theme or issue.
Why
Making a collage is an interpretative, associative process of collecting images each of which says something about the theme or issue, while also forming a coherent whole. It is a process of assigning meaning that results in a thorough, layered picture of the participant’s perspective on the theme or issue.
How
- Collect what you need to make a collage:
- Glue or tape
- Scissors
- Magazines to tear or cut illustrations from
- A3 paper (or larger) to paste the illustrations onto
- Optionally: markers
- Decide on the topic for the participants to make a collage about.
- Have the participant make a collage about the topic using the collected materials. Give the participant enough time.
- Discuss the collage:
- What does it show?
- Which individual illustrations does the collage consist of? What do these say about the topic?
- What does the collage as a whole say?
- Why has the participant chosen these illustrations?
- What does this say about the participant?
- What do you yourself see in the collage?
- Think of a caption for the collage. Which sentence captures its essence?
